Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q40/00—Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
  • G06Q40/04—Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/10—Office automation; Time management
  • G06Q10/105—Human resources
  • G06Q10/1057—Benefits or employee welfare, e.g. insurance, holiday or retirement packages
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q40/00—Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
  • G06Q40/06—Asset management; Financial planning or analysis
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q40/00—Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
  • G06Q40/12—Accounting
  • G06Q40/125—Finance or payroll
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q30/00—Commerce
  • G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Definitions

• the present invention relates generally to employee stock purchase plans ("ESPP"), whether qualified or non-qualified, as defined by the IRS. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for providing a free solution to allow employees to purchase the maximum number of shares under their ESPP with limited capital contributions from payroll deductions.
• ERP employee stock purchase plans
• equity compensation plans include employee stock purchase plans (“ESPP”), restricted stock unit plans (“RSU”), and employee stock option plans.
• ERP employee stock purchase plans
• RSU restricted stock unit plans
• employee stock option plans provide benefits for both the employer and the employee.
• Employers benefit by, in many cases, generating a tax asset to offset the cost of dilution, while employees enjoy the economic benefit of purchasing company stock.
• Employee stock purchase plans are known and exist in several different forms.
• An employee stock purchase plan is generally a contractual right granted to employees that gives employees the option to purchase company stock at the end of a specified period, typically at a discount to the market price or at a previously specified price.
• an employee who wishes to participate in an ESPP typically indicates the percentage or dollar amount of compensation to be deducted from their payroll every pay period.
• the purchase price is set at a discount from the fair market price of the stock.
• the discount is applied to the value of the stock on the first or last day of an offering period, whichever is lower (otherwise known as a "lookback").
• Some plans allow employees to increase or decrease their payroll deduction percentage throughout the offering period.
• the design of employee stock purchase plans varies greatly across companies. Some companies currently offer plans with a limited discount while others provide a subsidy or loan provision for employees.
• employers of sufficient size forfeit several million dollars per year in the form of a tax write-off by lack of employee participation.
• some employers have added loan or subsidy programs as part of their ESPP to facilitate employee participation, the complexity and balance sheet requirements have made such plans unpopular.
• the employer would be required to use $25,000,000 of capital on its balance sheet to facilitate such a program. The cost of capital alone makes such a large commitment of capital impractical for most employers.
• the method comprises an enrollment process whereby the employee selects a percentage of their income to contribute to the ESPP (which is less than the maximum allowable percentage or amount under the limits of the plan) and selects a price at which the employee would sell some portion of their shares at a future date, having an independent broker-dealer sell a derivative or other financial instrument to a counterparty in the financial markets, making an interest- free loan on behalf of the employee representing the difference between the plan maximum and the employee's selected contribution, the subsequent purchase of securities under the ESPP, sale of these securities via an open market transaction or delivery of shares to counterparty depending on the underlying stock price movement during the life of the offering period, the debit of loan principal from the proceeds of such a sale or delivery to the third party broker-dealer to repay the interest-free loan and the deposit of remaining shares not sold to repay the loan or fulfill employee elections in the employee's brokerage account.
• Fig. 1 is a flow diagram showing a traditional employee stock purchase plan of the prior art.
• Fig. 2A is a first portion of a flow diagram showing an embodiment of the methodology for maximizing share purchase of the present invention.
• Fig. 2B is a second portion of the flow diagram beginning at Fig. 2A, depicting the process flow if liquidity does not warrant the use of derivatives.
• Fig. 2C is a third portion of the flow diagram beginning at Fig. 2A, depicting the process flow if liquidity and volatility warrant the use of over-the-counter derivatives.
• Fig. 2D is a fourth portion of the flow diagram beginning at Fig. 2A, depicting the process flow if liquidity and volatility warrant the use of listed derivatives.
• Fig. 3 is a flow chart showing an exemplary timeline according to an embodiment of the method of the present invention.
• Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing exemplary loan mechanics according to an embodiment of the method of the present invention as shown in Fig. 2.
• Fig. 5 is a flow diagram showing an exemplary option exercise according to an embodiment of the method of the present invention as shown in Fig. 2.
• Fig. 6 is a table quantifying a theoretical employee's profit improvement of the method of the present invention over traditional employee stock purchase plans.
• Fig. 7 is a table showing an exemplary capital flow analysis associated with a hypothetical employee utilizing the methodology of the present invention.
• the word "exemplary” is used to mean serving as an example, instance or illustration. Any aspect or design described herein as “exemplary” is not necessarily intended to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or design. Rather, the use of the word “exemplary” is merely intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion.
• the present invention generally provides methods and systems, e.g., computer- implemented methods and computer systems, for maximizing the number of shares an employee is able to purchase under their employee stock purchase plan ("ESPP") with limited employee capital contributions.
• ERP employee stock purchase plan
• the terms "employee stock purchase plan” or "ESPP” may be used interchangeably to generally describe a qualified employee stock purchase plan under Section 423 of the Internal Revenue Code, or a non-qualified employee stock purchase plan structured like a qualified 423 plan but without the preferred tax treatment for employees, including but not limited to, employee stock purchase plans, employee stock ownership plans, employee stock purchase deposit plans, and profit sharing plans, or the like.
• the methodology of the present invention provides a significant quantifiable improvement over existing ESPP's.
• the present invention allows every employee to purchase the maximum number of shares possible under their ESPP regardless of their ability to afford payroll deductions, shifts the cost and capital requirements of the plan away from employees and employers to financial market participants, and maximizes the potential tax write-off for employers.
• Fig. 1 is a flow diagram showing a traditional ESPP process 100.
• an employee who wishes to participate in his or her employer's ESPP indicates the percentage or dollar amount of compensation to be deducted from their payroll every pay period for contribution to the ESPP (step 101 ).
• Payroll deductions are then made (step 102), for example, bi-weekly, and the accumulated payroll deductions are used to purchase shares of employer stock at the end of an offering period (step 103), typically at a discount from the fair market value of the shares.
• the shares are then transferred to the employee's brokerage account, at which point the shares are wholly owned and controlled by the employee (step 104).
• the method of the present invention draws on concepts from traditional ESPPs to create a new financial product which provides a means for an employee to purchase the maximum number of shares under their ESPP with limited capital contributions from payroll deductions. Further, the methodology of the present invention shifts the costs away from the employee and employer to third party financial market participants who provide an interest-free capital contribution or loan in order for the employee to purchase the maximum amount of shares during the offering period.
• Figs. 2A-2D depict a process diagram showing an overview of an embodiment of the method 200 of the present invention.
• the method comprises, during the pre-enrollment period, one or more employees each selecting a desired monetary contribution amount (step 201), which is less than the maximum allowable contribution under the ESPP, and selecting a rebalancing threshold or price (step 202).
• the rebalancing threshold is the price at which the employee is willing to sell shares of stock at the end of the offering period, and may be calculated, for example, as a theoretical stock price, an annualized return, or a minimum internal rate of return ("IRR"). It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the rebalancing threshold may be calculated by any now known or later developed method of calculation, and that the present invention is not limited to the methods of calculation as described herein.
• the employee may make selections of his or her monetary contribution amount and rebalancing threshold or price using an electronic enrollment application accessible such as via desktop or mobile computing device in network communication with a server controlled by the respective employer.
• the electronic enrollment application may further include a graphical user interface (GUI) for permitting selections of the enrollment parameters by the employee.
• GUI graphical user interface
• the selected monetary contribution amounts for each employee are directly or indirectly withheld or deducted via a payroll system coupled to the electronic enrollment application and comprising a withholdings module executable by a processor residing on the respective employer's server.
• the selected monetary contribution amounts for each employee are used to fund or credit a financial or ledger account of each employee at their respective employer, or at a financial institution or bank, which is used to purchase shares of employer stock at the end of the offering period.
• the method may further comprise, at step 203, calculating or processing each employee's selected monetary contribution amount and rebalancing price in relation to historical and implied liquidity of their respective employer's stock price to define an employer-specific liquidity value.
• This calculation may be performed using a volatility calculation module executable by a processor residing on a remote server operated by a third party lender or broker-dealer, which is in network communication with the respective employer's server and a financial exchange market for acquiring shares of employer stock.
• a determination is then made as to whether listed or over-the-counter derivatives should be utilized to facilitate disposition of shares of employer stock on the financial exchange market (step 204).
• the method may further comprise calculating or processing, via the volatility calculation module, each employee's selected monetary contribution amount and rebalancing price in relation to historical and implied volatility of their respective employer's stock price to define an employer-specific leverage value and determine whether the selected rebalancing price is sufficient to warrant the use of derivatives.
• the method further comprises, at step 205, determining whether, based on the calculated employer-specific leverage value, volatility of the stock warrants using leverage to fund a margin requirement associated with selling a derivative to facilitate disposition of employer stock on the financial exchange market.
• a transaction module executable by the processor residing on the third party server then aggregates each of the employees into one of a plurality of virtual containers, each having a distinct identification number assigned thereto, based on the selected monetary contribution amount and selected rebalancing price of each of the employees.
• Each of the virtual containers, and the respective aggregated employees in each container are then displayed on a display interface coupled to the remote third party server and accessible by the third party lender or broker-dealer.
• a plurality of trade positions related to each respective employer's stock are presented on the display interface, and order instructions for the trade positions are sequenced via the transaction module based on the aggregated virtual containers.
• the method comprises, at step 206, selling or instructing a designated broker to sell or take both a simultaneous "short" and “long” position in any derivative instrument including but not limited to, options, futures, swaps, or the like, at a strike price designated by the employee (see also Fig. 5, depicting the general mechanics of the option).
• any derivative instrument including but not limited to, options, futures, swaps, or the like, at a strike price designated by the employee (see also Fig. 5, depicting the general mechanics of the option).
• the principles of security instruments such as derivatives, options, futures, or swaps are generally known in the art, and therefore a detailed description of the respective mechanics is not included herein.
• the terms “derivative” or “option” may be used interchangeably to represent any security instrument utilized by the designed broker.
• the purpose of selling such a security is not to hedge but rather to lock in a point at which an employee would sell their shares in the future. This concept is referred to as "rebalancing" in the investment management industry.
• the strike price is either computed by solving for the price that the underlying stock price must reach to achieve the employee-specified internal rate of return or by using the user-specified theoretical price.
• the broker-dealer selling the option posts the necessary margin requirement with a clearing firm.
• Step 207 the broker-dealer or third party lender then makes an interest-free loan on behalf of the employee and uses the aggregate capital contributions (loan principal and employee payroll deductions) to purchase shares of employer stock on behalf of the employee at the purchase price designated by the employee's ESPP (step 208).
• Step 209 comprises determining whether, at the end of the offering period, the derivative is in-the-money ("ITM") or out-of-the-money ("OTM"). If the derivative is ITM, instructions to issue the requisite number of shares to fulfill any obligation under the option contract are disbursed by a share disbursement module executable by the processor residing on the third party server and the requisite shares are delivered to the counterparty.
• ITM in-the-money
• OTM out-of-the-money
• the counterparty returns to the broker-dealer the proceeds from the sale of the shares (strike price multiplied by number of shares).
• the broker-dealer then deducts the loan principal from the proceeds and transfers any remaining shares and/or profits from the sale to the employee's brokerage account (steps 210 to 212).
• the proceeds of the derivative are credited to a separate bank account owned exclusively by the third party administrator or broker-dealer.
• the broker dealer recoups the margin posted with the clearing firm (step 213).
• the broker- dealer deducts the loan principal from the proceeds from the sale of the shares and transfers any remaining shares and/or profit from the sale to the employee's brokerage account (steps 215 to 216). Upon completion of the transaction, the broker dealer recoups the margin posted with the clearing firm (step 213).
• the volatility calculation module determined that leverage to acquire shares of employer stock was not required and no derivatives were used, at least a portion of the shares of acquired employer stock, plus a sufficient number of shares to cover any applicable fees, are sold in the open market.
• the loan principal is deducted from the proceeds from the sale of the shares and any remaining shares and/or profit from the sale is transferred to the employee's brokerage account, as described above with respect to steps 214 to 216.
• a unique aspect of the methodology of the present invention is that there is no risk to the broker-dealer in providing the initial loan or supplemental monetary contribution on behalf of the employee.
• the derivative is ITM or OTM
• shares of stock are purchased and a portion of the shares sufficient to reimburse the loan principal provided by the broker-dealer is immediately sold to cover the loan.
• the broker-dealer will always be made whole, while the employee has the opportunity to achieve increased profits from the purchase of shares as if the employee had initially maximized their contribution to their ESPP.
• Fig. 3 depicts a transactional flowchart representing the distinct time periods of the methodology of the present invention.
• the employee selects a monetary contribution rate or amount to be contributed to the ESPP in after-tax dollars. If the employee elects to maximize their contribution, no further action is required during the pre-enrollment period and the ESPP operates as a traditional ESPP. By contrast, if the employee elects to contribute less than the maximum allowable under the terms of the plan, the employee then selects a theoretical price or minimum internal rate of return ("IRR") at which the employee would sell their shares at the end of the offering period.
• IRR internal rate of return
• the employee selects a number or percentage of shares to be sold in addition to the number of shares required to repay the loan in the event that the stock price meets or exceeds the sale price (in- the-money or "ITM") or in the event the stock price does not meet or exceed the sale price (out-of-the-money or "OTM").
• a third party broker-dealer then sells a derivative instrument to a financial market counterparty whereby the broker-dealer posts the necessary margin requirement with the appropriate clearing firm.
• the employee's elected monetary contribution is deducted from payroll and combined with a supplemental monetary contribution or loan from a third party or broker-dealer equal to the difference between the employee's selected contribution amount and the maximum allowable contribution under the plan over the course of the offering period.
• the mechanics of the loan are more particularly shown in Fig. 4.
• the aggregate proceeds which includes payroll deductions and loan proceeds, are used to purchase shares of stock.
• the broker-dealer purchases shares using the aggregate contribution and then delivers shares to the option counterparty, if necessary ("transaction" or "sale transaction"). If the employee had shares remaining after selling to cover the proceeds of the loan, the broker-dealer deposits the shares in the employee's brokerage account.
• Fig. 6 shows a table quantifying a theoretical employee's profit improvement in accordance with the methodology of the present invention over traditional employee stock purchase plans.
• the maximum number of stock shares that can be purchased under a theoretical ESPP is 588.24 shares, if the maximum 10% monetary contribution allowable under the terms of the plan is made.
• 588.24 shares are purchased, of which a number of shares must immediately be sold to cover the supplemental monetary contribution or loan made by the broker-dealer.
• the method of the present invention results in an average outperformance in the number of total shares purchased of 193% for contributions up to a maximum allowable monetary contribution of 10%, with an average outperformance in employee profit of 56% over a traditional ESPP.
• a maximum allowable contribution of 10% is being used for exemplary purposes only, and that the maximum allowable contribution may be less than or greater than 10%, in accordance with a particular employer's plan.
• Fig. 7 shows an exemplary cash flow analysis for a theoretical employee in accordance with the methodology of the present invention, as described above.
• the employer stock price at the beginning of the offering period is $10 per share (with a 15% discount under the ESPP and "lookback" feature), and the employee has selected a strike price of $12 per share.
• the employee can contribute a maximum of $200 but due to personal liquidity constraints, the employee elects to contribute $100, of which the remaining $100 is contributed interest-free by a broker-dealer, for a total contribution in the maximum allowable amount of $200.
• Block 720 depicts the actual stock purchase price for various ending stock prices ranging from $1.00 through $15.00. Share prices at the end of the offering period exceeding the employee-designed strike price of $12 represent in-the-money or ITM options.
• the purchase price is $12 per share regardless of whether actual share price at the end of the offering period exceeds $12 per share.
• Out-of-the-money or OTM options are unexercised, and the transaction will be an open market sale.
• Block 730 shows that 23.53 shares were purchased at the discounted price of $8.50 per share, and that all 23.53 shares were then sold, at the end of the offering period. If the shares were sold at the strike price of $12.00, the total proceeds of the sale would equal $282.35.
• an employee may select a theoretical share price, minimum annualized return, or internal rate of return from shares of the employee stock purchase plan in which they would agree to sell their shares.
• the method includes the steps of: establishing a unique digital account for each employee on a web or server based platform; and prompting the employee to select one of several minimum share prices, annualized returns or internal rate of returns.
• the annualized return is calculated using the forecasted date of each employee contribution, the forecasted number of shares the employee will be able to buy at the end of the offering period and the estimated minimum total profit from the sale.
• the employee's preferred minimum annualized rate of return or imputed premium to the current trading price is then stored for future use, unless otherwise specified by an employee.
• the present invention is further directed to a system that includes at least one computing device having software associated therewith that when executed is capable of performing a method to sell or instruct a broker to sell derivative instruments.
• the method includes the steps of: establishing an account with the broker to be owned by the company funding the difference in contributions or using a "broker assisted cashless exercise"; communicating via electronic transmission to the broker the forecasted number of derivative contracts to be sold short and long as well as the expiration date and strike price for each contract; and transferring property equivalent to the margin requirement into the account owned by the company funding the contribution difference.
• At least one step of the method is preferably accomplished by at least one computing device but may be completed manually.
• a system in another aspect of the invention, includes at least one computing device having software associated therewith that when executed is capable of performing a method that segments shares purchased via the employee stock purchase plan into two categories: 1) shares for delivery to option holder or broker and 2) shares to be sold directly or by broker, the proceeds of which will be returned to the employee.
• the method includes the steps of: transferring a number of shares equal to the number of shares purchased at the purchase date by all employees in which the underlying stock price has exceeded the preselected strike price selected by the employee into an account owned by the company funding the contribution difference; delivering said shares the owner of the option being exercised; transferring the appropriate pro-rata amount of capital from the account to which the option holders transferred the cash to settle the options delivery to an employee owned account; and transferring the proceeds of the sale of the shares not delivered to option holders to an account owned by the employee.
• At least one step of the method is preferably accomplished by at least one computing device but may be completed manually.
• the present invention may be embodied as systems, methods, apparatus, computer readable media, non-transitory computer readable media and/or computer program products.
• the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a "circuit," "module” or “system.”
• the volatility calculation, transaction, monetary contribution, and share disbursement modules may take the form of a combination of software and hardware aspects residing and/or accessible by a processor residing on a remote server controlled by the third party lender or broker- dealer, while the electronic enrollment interface, payroll system and withholdings module may reside on and/or be accessible by the respective employer's servers, which are in network communication with the remote server.
• the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more computer readable medium(s) having computer readable program code embodied thereon, where
• the computer readable medium may be a computer readable storage medium or a computer readable signal medium.
• a suitable computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
• suitable computer readable storage medium would include, without limitation, the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or flash memory), an optical fiber, an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
• a suitable computer readable storage medium may be any tangible medium that can contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
• a computer readable signal medium may include a propagated data signal with computer readable program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal may take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any suitable combination thereof.
• a computer readable signal medium may be any computer readable medium that is not a computer readable storage medium and that can communicate, propagate, or transport a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device.
• Program code embodied on a computer readable medium may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wireline, optical fiber cable, RF, etc., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.
• Computer program code for carrying out operations for aspects of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Python, C+ + or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language or similar programming languages.
• the program code may execute entirely on the user's computing device (such as, a computer), partly on the user's computing device, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computing device and partly on a remote computing device or entirely on the remote computing device or server.
• the remote computing device may be connected to the user's computing device through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computing device (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
• LAN local area network
• WAN wide area network
• Internet Service Provider an Internet Service Provider
• These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computing device (such as, a computer), special purpose computing device, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computing device or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
• a general purpose computing device such as, a computer
• special purpose computing device or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computing device or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
• These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable medium that can direct a computing device, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer readable medium produce an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
• the computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computing device, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other devices to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computing device, other programmable apparatus or other devices to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computing device or other programmable apparatus provide processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
• the function blocks or modules shown in the drawings illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program media and/or products according to various embodiments of the present invention.
• each block in the drawings may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s).
• the method provides for a third party administrator or broker taking a simultaneous short and long position in derivative or other financial instruments (with different strike prices) that would allow for the disposition of shares acquired in the ESPP at an employee designated strike price, with the third party contributing the difference between the employee's contribution and the maximum allowable by the employer or law (whichever is lower) at the end of the offering period to an account used to purchase shares via the ESPP, and further selling the shares at the appropriate price and time and returning the proceeds from the sale of shares, equivalent to the proceeds from the plan if the employee had initially maximized their contribution to the plan.
• the methodology of the present invention allows every employee to purchase the maximum number of shares possible under their ESPP regardless of their ability to afford payroll deductions, shifts the cost and capital requirements of the plan away from employees and employers to financial market participants, and maximizes the potential tax write-off for employers.

Landscapes

• Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Finance (AREA)
• Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
• Strategic Management (AREA)
• Development Economics (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
• Economics (AREA)
• Marketing (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Human Resources & Organizations (AREA)
• Technology Law (AREA)
• Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
• Operations Research (AREA)
• Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
• Quality & Reliability (AREA)
• Tourism & Hospitality (AREA)
• Data Mining & Analysis (AREA)
• Financial Or Insurance-Related Operations Such As Payment And Settlement (AREA)
• Time Recorders, Dirve Recorders, Access Control (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (2)

Family

ID=68165292

Family Applications (2)

Family Applications After (1)

Country Status (6)

Families Citing this family (2)

Family Cites Families (44)

• 2018
  • 2018-03-02 US US15/910,639 patent/US10445833B1/en active Active
• 2019
  • 2019-10-14 US US16/601,041 patent/US10679291B2/en active Active
• 2020
  • 2020-05-19 AU AU2020367097A patent/AU2020367097A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2020-05-19 CA CA3153846A patent/CA3153846C/en active Active
  • 2020-05-19 EP EP20877582.5A patent/EP4046123A4/de active Pending
  • 2020-05-19 WO PCT/US2020/033570 patent/WO2021076193A1/en unknown
  • 2020-06-08 US US16/895,765 patent/US10867352B2/en active Active
  • 2020-12-14 US US17/121,079 patent/US11922498B2/en active Active
• 2021
  • 2021-12-09 WO PCT/US2021/062618 patent/WO2022132562A1/en unknown
  • 2021-12-09 IL IL303597A patent/IL303597A/en unknown
  • 2021-12-09 AU AU2021401562A patent/AU2021401562A1/en active Pending
  • 2021-12-09 CA CA3202042A patent/CA3202042A1/en active Pending
  • 2021-12-09 EP EP21907515.7A patent/EP4260270A4/de active Pending
• 2022
  • 2022-04-07 IL IL292064A patent/IL292064A/en unknown
• 2024
  • 2024-01-19 US US18/417,581 patent/US20240153005A1/en active Pending
  • 2024-05-10 AU AU2024203120A patent/AU2024203120A1/en active Pending

Also Published As

Similar Documents

Legal Events